The complete HD (Blu-ray/HD-DVD) back-up thread.

Here's a similar thread with a lot of good information.

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/621809

 

I recently converted two HD-DVD titles to Blu-ray format and the target was to be burnt onto DVD-9's. I converted them so I could still use them as demonstration titles at work (I work in A/V electrical retail sales)

The original file size with the main movie and English audio was about 22GB for each of these two movies, so as a DVD-9 has about 8GB usable data space this would mean a compression ratio of about 35% of the original size.

I have mainly been playing them through the Panasonic Blu-ray player (DMP-BD30A) connected to a Panasonic Viera 50" Full HD Plasma TV (TH50PZ700A) and anybody (including staff) that have come along to look at it think that it's the original disc. I am not exaggerating here but they have retained fantastic amounts of detail, there is almost no visually perceivable quality loss when compared to the original disc.

There is no way that a Standard Definition DVD could even come close to the quality that these discs provide using the same amount of data available on a DVD-9 disc!

I have encoded these videos with MeGUI using my profile. The MeGUI Blu-ray profile I have created has been set-up to optimise picture quality. The AVC/h264 encoder is very efficient when compared to other encoders like MPEG2 or MPEG4 sp/asp (DivX/Xvid) etc. It uses more complex algorithms that are far more CPU intensive. Encoding times are obviously longer because of this but the wait is well worth it.

 

Hi everybody,

Recently I found the way to make AVCHD out of .mkv files, in order to play HD movies on my PS3.
So, as you described many times in prior posts, I use mkvextract to obtain the .h264, .ac3 files out of a .mkv, then I run h264info to change the level to 4.1 and finally I use tsmuxer to create a Blu-ray structure (note: I also insert a .srt file, with subtitles for my language - not English ).

My question is if anyone knows how to proceed with output files bigger than 4.7 GB. I know tsmuxer has the ability to split files, but I have seen the following result:

Have a let's say 6 GB .h264 and it's equivalent .ac3 file and .srt file, load them in tsmuxer, choose to split at 4 gb -> the output is a blu-ray structure, with the folders BMDV and CERTIFICATE, and in BMDV/STREAM/ i have 2 files - let's say xxxx.m2ts and yyyy.m2ts.

My question (boy, I thought i won't stop writing) is:
Is there any way to write this on 2x 4.7gb DVDs ?

Thank you for your time,
Stef

 

This is my next task but i seen the guide that was on doom9 forum & it scares me away.Have you figure out a better way than the one on Doom9 forum? Seem like there are a million things to do.

I have tried for a while now but i can't fine any visually quality loss( my set Sony 46XBR4) on your profile.If there are any it must be far beyond the eyes can see.I use your profile even if it does take longer than the High quality BD profile.

 

Yes, that is the one of the Player/TV combos I have played them through at work. I have also tried playing them on a 65" Full HD Plasma and the quality still looks amazing.

At home I play them through my PS3 connected to a 46" Sharp Aquos Full HD LCD, and once again I can verify that there is almost no quality loss when compared to the original.

 

@Ryu77

I just tried to convert a LPCM track @ approx 7MB/s to DTS @1536kbps using eac3to with eac3toGUI. I used the sonic filter and Surcode is intstalled on my PC. Everything started fine, the single 5GB LPCM file was split to six single channels by eac3to then the recode began and finished after about 15 minutes. I then tried to load the file in tsMuxeR but it came back "cannot detect stream", any ideas?

Also, in eac3toGUI the default output was AC3, I changed it to DTS.

 

Nevermind, I figured it out. When demuxed the LPCM was in two parts, I'm assuming from the layer break. Anyway, once I appended the two dts tracks (part 1 and 2) to make one it loaded fine.

EDIT: I had to use mkvmerge to append the two files. Even though tsMuxeR can append and will load a .mka (audio only) file it will not process it, file type not supported. I then had to extract the DTS file from the mka audio file using mkvextract. Now tsMuxeR will take the DTS file... muxing as I speak... er type.

 

I tried using Ryu77's instructions but I think I must be doing something wrong. MeGUI took 7 hours for the first pass and it's been another 7 for the second and it's only at 53%. I have an Intel Quad with 3GB RAM running XP. The one thing I noticed is the status window of MeGUI is stating the total length is 4:22:57 when the movie is less than 2 hours. Is there a setting I missed? Any help would be appreciated.

 

On a quad a using Ryu77's profile takes about 10-12 hours for a 2 hour movie.

 

I set my Priority to High i don't think this will hurt it unless Ryu say so.

In Megui go to Option,then setting then click on High for Default Priority then hit save.

If you don't after the first encode your setting will jump to Low for the second encode which will take all day.


My first encode takes 4hrs & the second take 10 hrs so this isn't something you can wait around on i set mines at night or when i go to work.I have a Quad core with 4gb of RAM.

 

This information in MeGUI indicate the time remaining in the recode, not the length of the movie.

 

ATTENTION DTS enthusiasts (with a BD drive), looks like eac3to with eac3toGUI can recode uncompressed LPCM and Dolby TrueHD to DTS (1536 kbps) for a AVCHD DVD9. You will also need Surcode to do this.

Use the Sonic Filter for LPCM and either the Nero or Libav Filter for Dolby TrueHD, change the output file from AC3 to DTS and set the bitrate to 1536 kbps. Surcode actually writes the DTS track but eac3to does this automatically for you during the process.

One thing I found strange. tsMuxeR would not take the newly created DTS track. I had to use mkvmerge to make a .mka file, then mkv extract to get the DTS file extracted... because tsMuxeR does not like .mka's either. tsMuxeR now takes the new DTS track from the .mka file.

I mentioned BD drive earlier because not too many mkv downloads come with uncompressed LPCM or Dolby TrueHD.

This might not be a new find, many might actually know this information already... but I just got a BD drive and I'm having a blast experimenting.

 

Long time lurker writing here, I've been experimenting with all this lately with great results. All I can say is, I'm glad I splurged for a Quad-core

I have 2 cents to add to the subtitles/720p conversion discussion... As we know the original subtitles on the disc are essentially picture files.. So instead of extracting them to SRT text and recreating them at a lower resolution, could there not be some software that loads up the 1920x1080 original SUP file and spit it out resized at 1280x720, without having to muck around? This would save a LOT of time, and be especially useful for subtitles fom languages with special characters that SUPread cannot handle, or Asian subtitles too!

Anyway, keep up the great job, guys

 

Ryu, at what point would you consider the average bitrate would be too low for a 1080p recode?

I have a 2hr15min movie @ 1080p
Source = orginal BD rip
Recoded with your profile (as always)
avg bitrate = 6 mb/s
h264 file size = 6.0 GB
DTS audio = 1.7 GB
PGS sub = 20 mb

I'm actually overshooting the recode by about 200mb with the plan to cut out the end credits just to get the 6 mb/s bitrate. I know I could drop the DTS and go with AC3 but with this movie SQ is just as important as PQ.

So basically, how low is too low for a 1080p when it comes to bitrate?

Thanks, O!

 

Personally I wouldn't worry about cutting of the end credits. I think I have a touch of OCD that wouldn't let me do that as the movie would be somewhat "incomplete"... Lol!

On a serious note, 200MB when comparing a target size of 6000MB isn't really going to make a significant impact. I recently re-encoded a movie at about the same bitrate in 1080p and it looked great.

If you ever drop below say 5Mbs, I would look at other alternatives. One of the recent HD-DVD to Blu-ray conversions I completed was a 3 hour movie and it contained a Dolby Digital Plus track (EAC3) @ 1536Kbs, so I re-encoded the audio to Dolby Digital @ 640Kbs. This reduced the audio track by about 1200MB and it meant that I had about another 900Kbs that I could allocate to the movie. To me this made more sense. The end result was great. The picture looked fantastic and the audio still sounded awesome. There was very minimal quality loss when comparing the re-encoded audio to the original.

It really is amazing how efficient the AVC/H264 encoder is when using the right settings. Which is why I have set up a MeGUI profile to ensure as much quality as possible. I am one that is very fussy when it comes to picture quality. However, when viewing a 1080p encode even at a low bitrate of 6Mbs on my 46" Full HD LCD, I can honestly say it looks fantastic. Almost all the detail and texture still remains from the original. When comparing a standard DVD to a re-encoded Blu-ray or HD-DVD, there is no competition at all. The standard DVD lacks definition and when viewing high detailed/textured scenes the pixels start to show noise and a smooth look. A standard DVD can not recreate the detail that should be there from the master video. A lot of this comes down to DVD's using the MPEG2 codec, when in comparison with AVC/H264, MPEG2 is old and nowhere near as efficient. Try doing a 1080p encode at 6Mbs with MPEG2... The results will be horrible.

Another option could be to split the movie across two DVD-9's. This is something I have considered as being a much more economical alternative to burning with BD discs.

 

Guys im curious is a HD-DVD player AVCHD compatible?

 

No. The raw A/V streams are usually compatible just in the wrong container/structure.

I've actuall been searching for a program similar to tsMuxeR but for HD DVD, there are some out there but are commercial and expensive.

 

LOL, talk about OCD. My original recoded bitrate would have been something like 5824 kb/s, I just had to have 6000 kb/s. Well then, since you insist the outcomce @ 6000kb/s will still appear superb I will leave in the DTS track.

Thanks man.

 

Hi
I don’t have so much idea regarding this subject. Just I suggest you to take steps accordingly.

p.s. i'm a (very stupid) spammer, does it show ?

 

@ afterdawn staff....^^ who did that??? the P.S part?? com'on now your just playing mind games lol!!!


anybody backup the movie jumper yet???? i'll probably buy it in a day or so.....